Sunlight beats baking soda

The fastest way to kill onion and garlic smells in a lunch box is a vinegar wash followed by direct sunlight — not baking soda alone.

Plastic is porous. When you pack hot curry or a warm dish with garlic, the heat opens those pores and the oils sink in. That smell is literally in the material now. Soap and water wipe the surface but don’t touch what’s absorbed.

Here’s the fix. Wash the box with white vinegar (about half vinegar, half water). Rinse it, then put it in direct sunlight for a few hours. UV light breaks down the odor molecules. A sunny windowsill works. This genuinely works way better than leaving it full of baking soda for two days.

Prevention helps too. Let hot food cool before you seal it, and don’t microwave the box with food in it. Both of those make the porous absorption way worse.

Or just get a stainless steel container and stop fighting plastic entirely.